The new SmackDown women’s champion Sasha Banks has had quite the year in WWE. From being double champion to becoming rivals with her best friend and ending the 379-day reign of Bayley in a splendid Hell in a Cell match, The Boss did have a wonderful year.

Last week on SmackDown, she retained her championship against Bayley on SmackDown. Now as she heads to face another former rival at Survivor Series in the form of Raw women’s champion Asuka, it seems that the Bayley- Banks rivalry is on hold for some time.

Recently in an interview with Digital Spy, Sasha Banks looked back at this career-defining rivalry for both Superstars involved.

“This whole storyline with Bayley, it was a long time coming and there were times in the past where we saw it stop and go, but in the long run we really had to have the fans see this long, long friendship which you don’t really get to see in the WWE too often.”

Banks gave huge credit to the number of years that Bayley and Banks were friends, which made this rivalry even better.

“Five years of this journey, of this friendship, growing and growing, and then Bayley turning on me… it’s been everything that I’ve ever wanted.”

A year-long rivalry is difficult to carry with constant changes and developments to be continuously made.

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Sasha Banks credits Trish Stratus and Mickie James as her inspirations for her current storyline

Trish Stratus and the new kid on the block named Mickie James had a rivalry similar to Banks and Bayley in terms of length. James played the character of an obsessed fan who crossed the line with Trish Stratus.

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That fan to obsession change converted James into the villain of the rivalry. It ended with Mickie James defeating Trish Stratus at WrestleMania 22 for the Women’s Championship. The match is still recognized as one of the best women’s matches in the company’s history.

Sasha Banks compared her rivalry to the above-mentioned one. She spoke about how Stratus and James inspired her to do a long storyline.

“I got really inspired from Trish Stratus and Mickie James – they had a year-long storyline when I was watching as a teenager. That’s what I wanted growing up, I wanted a year-long storyline where you just were on the ride the whole time. So for us, it’s kind of like a revamp of that.”

As mentioned above, Sasha Banks goes to war against Asuka on November 19th at Survivor Series. Post the PPV, it will be intresting to see if the ‘Boss’ gets a new challenger or continues her story with Bayley.